Interpublic CEO Michael
Roth said he expected growth to return to the group in 2013.
So that might be one factor. And the stocks of Omnicom and WPP
Group have also risen over the same time-period — so maybe IPG is
getting some benefit from category-wide investors.

I had dinner recently with a source who controls several billion
dollars in ad media-buying, and this executive talked as if
everyone already knew that IPG was likely to get bought.

There's also the subject of Roth himself.

He was brought in to run IPG in the mid-2000s after an accounting
scandal. He has since cleaned up the joint, but Interpublic
hasn't really regained momentum over the years. McCann and
DraftFCB both, pointedly, are in urgent need of big wins to
replace lost business (Microsoft
and S.C. Johnson both left IPG in 2012).

Yahoo

Roth is 66. He needs an exit strategy — a way to leave IPG on a
high note.

He will receive
$34 million if IPG undergoes a change of control, according
to IPG's SEC filings.
He is highly incentivized to sell the company, in other words.
Roth would get paid millions more for selling than for doing
anything else, such as continuing to run the company or retiring
without a buyout.

Accepting an offer from a suitor would boost the price of the
stock and return at least some of a lost decade of value for IPG
shareholders. That's a good story to end on, too.